CREDIT: SCREEN GEMS, INC.
Josh Gad and Kevin Hart star in the bromantic comedy The Wedding Ringer, but don't expect to be blown away.

When an awkward guy is about to marry the girl of his dreams, the house of cards he’s built is about to come crashing down when his wedding planner saves the day. Not through – you know – honesty, which would have been much easier, but instead by telling him to hire the Wedding Ringer, who will pretend to have a long history of friendship with him – for a fee.

This is a movie full of terrible movie clichés, from the big guy who has no idea why the girl is into him to saying the name of the movie in the movie for no apparent reason, to almost failing the Sexy Lamp Test – this is where the female characters could be replaced with sexy lamps with no change to the plot.

While this is a bromance movie and a lack of female characters can be somewhat forgiven, it would still be nice to see more than one woman who doesn’t simply fill a stereotype.

The acting, for the most part, is pretty good, with many amusing moments. Kevin Hart and Josh Gad have some excellent chemistry, and there are a surprising number of more subtle moments – sadly mixed in with a heavy dosing of repetition to make sure you get the point – that really let you feel how their friendship is growing. Kaley Cuoco- Sweeting does well with what the writers give her – although she is sadly typecast – and at least one of her lines could have been taken straight from season one of The Big Bang Theory.

The plot of The Wedding Ringer is predictable, and one could almost imagine Aladdin’s Genie in the background yelling, “Tell her the TRUTH!” However, when your entire premise is based around an intricate web of lies, telling the truth would shorten the film a bit too much. So instead, we’re treated to a large number of random events that are slapped together for maximum comedic value but have little to no basis in reality and an ending that generates a large amount of exaggerated eye-rolling from the audience.

The movie is also visually disappointing. There are a few opportunities to get some beautiful scenery or interesting shots, but none of it is taken advantage of, and those few special effects that are used could have been outdone by any high school film class. The soundtrack is rather forgettable, with some poorly- done covers of old songs being about as good as it gets.

Somehow, despite the large number of faults it has, The Wedding Ringer still manages to be fairly amusing. While some of the jokes are crude and repetitive, there are moments of genuine emotion that make the movie watchable. There are obvious issues with stereotyping and sloppiness, but it’s hard to expect too much from a bromantic comedy like this one. Instead, it might be best to just turn off your brain while watching these men scramble their way to friendship.